The Real Toll House Cookie Recipe

[LTS3]

The local news station did a story about the Toll House Inn where the famous cookies originated from. The recipe on the packages of chocolate chips is completely different from what the original baker used (or claims to have used).

Baker’s daughter reveals ‘real recipe’ for Toll House chocolate chip cookies

The original Toll House cookie recipe, according to Peg:

• 1 1/2 cups of shortening
• 1 1/8 cups of sugar
• 1 1/8 cups of brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3 1/8 cups of flour (Peg prefers King Arthur all purpose)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of hot water
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• Chocolate chips (and walnuts)

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-13 minutes.

The 1 1/2 teaspoon of hot water is to dissolve the baking soda in before adding it to the other ingredients.

I wish there were more detailed instructions. Do all the ingredients get put into a bowl and mixed together? Mix dry ingredients first then add in the shortening and dissolved baking soda and eggs?

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

The way I mix cookies is:
Stir all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Mix the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts. Good luck making them.

 

[muffy]

They are the best cookies in the world!

 

[DreamerRose]

I just checked - stubborn fact-checker that I am. This recipe is the same as the original Nestle's recipe, except that it's been increased by a third and added the water for the baking soda. Have a look.

Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

[Kat0121]

I just checked - stubborn fact-checker that I am. This recipe is the same as the original Nestle's recipe, except that it's been increased by a third and added the water for the baking soda. Have a look.

Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies

The recipe in the link has butter in it. Peg says that it's really Crisco.

I'm not the biggest chocolate chip cookie fan in the world but I have a hard time with the Crisco thing. It has it's place in the cooking world but in cookies? Nah. They make come out looking nice but butter gives them flavor that Crisco can't touch. If you're going to splurge on some cookies, I say go all in.

Want a REALLY good chocolate chip cookie recipe? Here is my go to. I have made these countless times for countless people and everyone raves about them. I have made them for potlucks, parties, family get togethers, etc. I switch up the chips. Sometimes semisweet, sometimes white chips with macadamias, sometimes peanut butter. All with fantastic results.

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I don't use Nestle morsels because IMO they are weak. I use Ghiradelli. The are worth the price difference. You want to take a bite and say, "Yup. This is worth every calorie."

 

[Libby.]

When I was in high school, the cafeteria made the best sugar cookies. When it was cookie day you had to get into line quick because they went fast. I am pretty sure they were made with butter and lard or tallow because they didn't taste anything like sugar cookies do today. They also made chocolate sugar cookies. Mmmm. I wish I had a time machine and could go back and get that recipe.

 

[LTS3]

Crisco makes a butter-flavored shortening: Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening | Crisco Not sure if that makes any difference in cookies.

 

[Kat0121]

Crisco makes a butter-flavored shortening: Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening | Crisco Not sure if that makes any difference in cookies.

I thought about that but butter flavored Crisco wasn't introduced until 1981 so there's no way it was in the original recipe. I've used it before. It's pretty good for what it is and adds extra flavor that regular Crisco doesn't have.

 

[Winchester]

Some of my grandmother's best cookies had lard in them. Didn't stop us from eating them. That's what many cooks used back then. Nowadays, you can buy leaf lard in the grocery store.

I don't use shortening regularly, but Dear Richard's favorite snickerdoodle recipe uses shortening (actually half shortening, half butter). And I wouldn't dare change to another recipe. That's blasphemy in this house. For everything else I use butter. Pie crusts are made with shortening (when I don't call on the Dough Boy). I only use Crisco.

My favorite chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe is from King Arthur. It uses light corn syrup and vinegar. And Ghirardelli chips, 18 ounces of them.

I still eat raw cookie dough.

I'm a thrower. That means that I mix the liquids together first: eggs, sugars, etc. Then I'll throw in the salt, baking soda, baking powder, etc. in and mix that together. Then I throw in the flour, usually a cup or so at a time and mix that in. Then the vanilla and other extracts. Followed by the chips. I hardly ever mix the dry ingredients together first anymore. And I don't measure my extracts anymore. I'm lazy. I pour a bit of extract in, say "Looks good" or "Hmm, a bit more" and go from there.

 

[LTS3]

I thought about that but butter flavored Crisco wasn't introduced until 1981 so there's no way it was in the original recipe. I've used it before. It's pretty good for what it is and adds extra flavor that regular Crisco doesn't have.

I was just saying I wasn't sure if butter flavored Cricso would make a difference in cookies in general.

Mom used to make almond cookies that contained a whole pound of lard And she never told people it contained lard so anyone who was a vegetarian / vegan / etc never knew they were eating an animal product. The cookies were a little on the greasy side. She would use regular Crisco if she didn't have lard but the cookies didn't have the same taste as lard would have given them.

 

[Kat0121]

I was just saying I wasn't sure if butter flavored Cricso would make a difference in cookies in general.

Mom used to make almond cookies that contained a whole pound of lard And she never told people it contained lard so anyone who was a vegetarian / vegan / etc never knew they were eating an animal product. The cookies were a little on the greasy side. She would use regular Crisco if she didn't have lard but the cookies didn't have the same taste as lard would have given them.

I bet they were good though.

 

[Kat0121]

These sound amazing. Where is Aunt Marge when I need her?

Aunt Marge's Sugar Cookies Recipe on Food52

 

[Winchester]

These sound amazing. Where is Aunt Marge when I need her?

Aunt Marge's Sugar Cookies Recipe on Food52

They do look good, but I don't think lemon belongs in a sugar cookie. A sugar cookie should be....sugar!

Are you going to try them and review them for us?

LTS3 I would think that a shortening-based cookie would be thicker than a butter-based cookie, if that makes any sense. When I made the above-mentioned KA chocolate chip cookie one time, I was low on butter, so I used half butter/half margarine. I was amazed at how that change made a thicker, kind of fluffier cookie; it didn't flatten out like my all butter choc chip cookies do. They were still really good cookies. I wonder if shortening would make the same difference?

 

[Kat0121]

They do look good, but I don't think lemon belongs in a sugar cookie. A sugar cookie should be....sugar!

Are you going to try them and review them for us?

LTS3 I would think that a shortening-based cookie would be thicker than a butter-based cookie, if that makes any sense. When I made the above-mentioned KA chocolate chip cookie one time, I was low on butter, so I used half butter/half margarine. I was amazed at how that change made a thicker, kind of fluffier cookie; it didn't flatten out like my all butter choc chip cookies do. They were still really good cookies. I wonder if shortening would make the same difference?

I think I'd use vanilla instead of lemon but I did use KAF's Fiori di Sicilia in a sugar cookie recipe once and it was amazing. The smell in the house while they were baking was intoxicating. I do have some of that in the pantry.

I'd have to empty out the oven. Currently I use it as storage space.

 

[Winchester]

Now that would work! After you mentioned the Fiori di Sicilia, I tried some in a sugar cookie recipe, too. We thought we died and went to cookie heaven.

My sister uses her oven for storage, too. Several years ago, she wanted to thaw a whole chicken. She stuck it in the oven and promptly forgot about it. After a while, they couldn't figure out where the god-awful smell was coming from. It was rank, it was disgusting, it was nauseating. Finally, one day, her husband opened the oven door. The smell almost knocked him down. (She doesn't use her oven very often.)